E-Verify Debate Continues As Extension Nears

Workforce, Sept 22, 2008

Byline: Mark Schoeff Jr.

Controversy surrounding a government-run electronic worker verification system will continue for the foreseeable future as Congress moves toward renewing the program that has become the cornerstone of federal work-site enforcement.

A 1997 law establishing the mechanism, now known as E-Verify, is set to expire in November. The House overwhelmingly approved a five-year exten- sion in late July.

Prospects in the Senate are more complicated. One bill is a straightforward extension, similar to the House measure. Another would link reauthorization to recapturing family- and employment-based immigration visas that were unused in previous yearsa provision that's likely to generate resistance.

E-Verify supporters on Capitol Hill praise it for helping reduce the "jobs magnet'' that fosters illegal immigration and want to make it permanent and mandatory for all employers. Detractors want to overhaul it or junk it.

The system checks information from I-9 forms against Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration databases. The Society for Human Resource Management and other HR groups criticize it for being unable to detect identity theft.

They also argue that relying on a Social Security database with an error rate of 4.1 percent could wrongfully declare millions of people ineligible for work. DHS officials say E-Verify confirms 94 percent of queries within seconds and has an error rate of less than 1 percent.

Two companies that have used the system have been the target of major raidsfood processor Swift & Co. in December 2006 and electronic device maker Howard Industries in August. The government made nearly 1,200 and 595 arrests, respectively.

Charges have not been brought against the companies, and they haven't been fined, although individual supervisors may face prosecution.

"The value of E-Verify is, assuming a company uses it in good faith, it will be a defense,'' says Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff. "We are not going to punish people in a company because they used E-Verify and it turned out that someone actually stole an identity and that's why it looked like it came up legitimately.''

So far, 84,730 companies are using the voluntary system. About 1,000 new companies sign up each week. Doing so doesn't necessarily keep DHS at bay.

"E-Verify is not an inoculation against enforcement,'' says Pat Reilly, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But a couple of hiring mistakes will not bring the DHS hammer down. DHS is seeking to root out cases involving hundreds of illegal workers, Reilly says.

In the meantime, the agency announced in early September an expansionto 46 companiesof an ICE program in which participants agree to follow best hiring practices, including the use of E-Verify, and submit to a government audit.

Reilly says the initiative is designed "to help us help them find vulnerabilities in their hiring system.'' But the business community is wary of a proposed regulation to make E-Verify mandatory for all federal contractors.

"The E-Verify system is not ready for prime time,'' says Randel Johnson, vice president of labor, immigration and employee benefits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Mark Schoeff Jr.